Monday, February 19, 2018

Stranger Things, Season 2, Episode 5: Dig Dug

So, Joyce has a
mystery - this means it’s time to radically redecorate her home! I have to say
this habit of plastering random stuff on every flat surface every time
something odd happens is more than a little disturbing. I like to think that
this is only happening because of supernatural nastiness

Actually that’s a
terrible lie. I like to think this is a constant habit and any random problems
will set her off into a series of truly bizarre collages, because that would be
kind of hilarious.

So she has plastered
Will’s tunnel network all over her home, while Will is comforted by Mike. Will
is not doing well, clearly disturbed by all the shadowy stuff he sees and is
now sweating profusely presumably due to the big monster’s love of cold. Mike
offers the hope that since Will senses what the big monster senses he can be
some kind of awesome spy.

Jim has been
examining the Ominous tunnel - and some random tentacle goo creature on the
wall squirts poison nastiness into his face, leaving him unconscious on the
floor. And the hole he dug is then plugged by vines. This is not good. Even
when he manages to regain consciousness, he still stumbles around, tries to
find a way out, tries to dig through a wall (for some reason) and in general is
in a creepy horror set full of slimy, tentacle nastiness. Eventually he ends up
on the floor, covered in tentacles. Really really not good.

Luckily for him, Will
psychically senses this and dreams of where he is - pointing it out on his map,
which no-one can read. Oops.

Well along comes Bob.
Who is quietly awesome. Here to provide some kind of help and comfort for Will
who he thinks is sick. After initially worrying that Bob is going to see her
disturbing collaging, Joyce realises Bob is super clever and can be really useful
in interpreting the pictures - so recruits him on the understanding that he
asks no questions

Ah, Bob. He is the definition of a nice guy. And I mean nice guy, as in
genuinely decent, caring human being, rather than Nice Guy, arsehole who thinks
he can buy sex with common decency. Bob is very worried that both Will looks
kind of ill and Joyce has reacted to this by taking up Disturbingly Craft
Projects and though he respects her wish for him not to ask questions he
is clearly concerned. But he’s also a brilliant lover of puzzles who, after
quickly realising the collage is a map, excellently starts pinpointing where it
corresponds to and gets completely lost in the joys of the puzzle and figuring
it out

I like Bob. I feel
Bob will be eaten by something by the end of this season. But I raise a glass
to Bob before this inevitably happens. With his help he pinpoints here Jim is

Let’s also check in
on the Ominous People in the Ominous Lab have done some soil sample testing
from the various rotting farmers fields and realise that if you apply fire then
all of them form disturbing whirlwinds. Note applying fire to one, makes them
all whirlwind because they’re all spookily connected. Ominous Lab People decide
that this is a definite Oh Shit moment and also head out to try and stop this

Which means when Bob
and Joyce find the hole Jim went down, carve their way through vines and rescue
Jim (was there any doubt that Joyce would charge in?), they’re soon followed by
the Ominous Lab People with flamethrowers

This seems to be
their solution to everything. And I approve. So many of the books I’ve read and
shows I’ve watched would see all of their problems vanish if they applied the
“kill it with fire” method. Also points to Bob and Jim exchanging polite greetings
like they’ve just met. It makes my English heart proud to see two men who
maintain proper dignity in complete denial of the randomness around them

A downside to this flamethrowy-ness is that Will, connected to the shadow
monster, collapses and starts screaming. Only I think it’s less a “I’m in agony
and dying” scream and more a “the unholy noise I’m making signals the end times
and summons the Thing That Man Was Not Meant To Know” scream.

It is not a good
scream. Though I do have a friend who makes a similar noise when she realises
there’s no vodka left.

So, Ominous Labs have
another thing to worry about because Nancy is gunning for them. And since this
is the 80s the Cold War would probably have been over years earlier if Nancy
had been gunning for the Soviet Union. She and Jonathan go on a road trip which
involves awkwardly staying in a hotel together and her vaguely wondering why
she and Jonathan didn’t become a thing and Jonathan, predictably, saying the
wrong thing. He stepped back because of Steve, she points out she did wait for
him and he basically says “not long enough”. So, not the smoothest path

I kind of feel sorry
for Steve here.

They end up going to
a guy I have a feeling I’m supposed to recognise, but I don’t. He’s a
conspiracy theory obsessive, with lots of paranoia and security measures and a
wall of televisions which conspiracy theorists all seem to have. I dunno, maybe
the union insists. They give him the recording and he has a dilemma.

Because no-one’s
going to believe it (let’s face it, the recording could be anyone. Merely
having a recording of some random guy isn’t proof of anything) and most people
are so very invested in comforting normality that exposing ground breaking
horror won’t work. They won’t believe it, they don’t want to believe it and
anyone in authority who debunks it, no matter how weakly will be believed
instantly

Kind of like Trump
supporters who still think Russia had nothing to do with. Or Brexiteers who
think Britain is going to be some kind of super power once we’re out of the EU

(Yes, I’m getting
political. No I don’t think the readers will care because the aforementioned
groups have likely already stormed off from this site for so many many other
reasons)

So he and Nancy
(leaving Jonathan to scrabble to catch up) come with a better plan: lie. Or
water it down. No-one’s going to believe alien dimensions and monsters - but
they will believe, say, a chemical leak. It’s familiar enough to be believable
and awful enough to cause outrage enough to burn the lab down - as Nancy wants.
Because Nancy isn’t playing

While Will and Mike
are running around facing shadowy monsters, Lucas wants to make up with Max. He
asks his dad what he does when he’s annoyed his mother and he tells him that he
apologises and does whatever his mother wants

Lucas asks what he
does when he’s not wrong and his mother is

To which his dad says
“she’s never wrong.” Lucas’s father is a wise wise man.

So Lucas meets Max at
the Arcade, manages to trick her to go to a private area and then tells her
everything.

Which is good except,
of course, she doesn’t believe a world. Why would she? Lucas desperately tries
to convince her that it’s real and seems to come close to this simply by how
desperate and scared she is. But before they can talk more, Billy arrives, he
is awful and there’s more arguments about Max spending time with Lucas which is
almost certainly racist.

During this Dustin is
dealing with the fact his pet monster, Dart, has eaten his mother’s cat. He
gets rid of his distraught mother as quickly as he can, lures Dart into a
basement to lock away and buries the cat, all the while calling the others and
desperately asking for help. Except they’re all distracted and none of them are
available - except Erica, Lucas’s sister who has no time for his nonsense.

Dustin resorts to
drafting Steve because why not, at least he knows the big secret. Also I am
vastly amused that Nancy and Mike’s father, having no clue what his children
are ever doing, grumbles that neither of them live there any more.

Which leaves us with
El who manages to hitch-hike her way to her mother, Terri. She meets her aunt
Becky who does try to make her go away, not believing her until El - or Jane as
is her real name - uses her telekinesis to access the house. This is more
convincing… but then she sees the condition her mother is in. Catatonic, just
repeating the same few words over and over and over again.

Becky is kind,
welcoming, clearly deeply emotional to see the long lost return of Jane and is
quick to offer Jane/El a home with them. I will say that the acting of this
whole series is absolutely perfect - beyond perfect - and Aunt Becky’s emotion
and pain and hope that it’s painful and powerful to see

El notices the lights
flickering which Becky puts down to dodgy wiring but El recognises as psychic
shenanigans. Confirmed when she sees her mother’s nose bleed. She realises her
mother wants to talk and uses a blindfold to allow her to psychically dip into
her head

She does and sees
Terri’s history - she gave birth to El and the baby was stolen. Everyone
claimed she died in a miscarriage but Terri didn’t believe it - instead
invading the lab with a gun. There she finds El - and another child I assume
is Kali - before being captured and electroshocked into her current state. The
words she repeats over and over is her reliving this moment over and over and
over again. Obviously, this is utterly tragic and may end up with El going on
the warpath but I hope will lead to them finding Kali

I’m increasingly
beginning to wonder at the storylines branching off. I mean I’m really happy
that Dustin and Lucas are getting their own storylines which is something I
complained about last season. But at the same time, Lucas, Dustin, Max, Steve
and Billy all feel… superfluous? It’s not that they have their own storylines -
it’s that they’re no longer involved in the main storylines any more.